Despite chugging far beyond everyone’s expectations, Charlottesville’s daily Amtrak passenger train service may not survive past 2011. The train, which began service on October 1 of last year, travels from Lynchburg to Charlottesville and then onto DC. According to the Daily Progress, the train is more than doubling officials’ expectations and brought in almost $6.4 million in the past year.
In a press release, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) said, “Virginia has no dedicated source of state rail operating funds today. Governor McDonnell and the General Assembly authorized up to $6 million in Rail Enhancement funds to support operating costs in FY 2011, but there is not sufficient funding identified beyond FY 2011.”
In essence, the state does not even have the funding for the train in 2011, which is why it pulled $6 million from the Rail Enhancement fund. That was the first signal of danger for Meredith Richards, founder of Cville Rail.
The state allocated $10.6 million over three years for this train. However, allocation does not equal appropriation, and the state needs more funding to keep the train going. (The train costs about $5.48 million each year for its four daily trips from Lynchburg to DC and back.) The state and Amtrak are currently in negotiations over how much the state will fund in 2011, says Richards.
While it is currently unclear how severe this threat is, Richards and DRPT are striving to ensure the train stays operational. Richards says it would be “counter-intuitive, irrational for the state not to continue this train.”
Senate Resolution 63, sponsored by Senator Yvonne Miller, has DRPT researching how other states fund their trains and report back to the General Assembly. Richards also expects DRPT to propose the establishment of a rail operating fund at the next General Assembly session, which may be another solution. Whatever the solution, Richards says, we need a “sustained, dedicated source of operating funds” to keep the train rolling.